Chamber Orchestra streams healing music into hospital

Believing in music’s power to lift the spirit, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra will live-stream its concert Saturday into the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and The Hallmark retirement center.
Saturday’s concert, “ROCO Celebrates Asia,” is the first of four that ROCO will stream this season.
“MD Anderson knows music is so important to the healing process,” ROCO artistic director Alecia Lawyer said. Because the center is “so committed to the healing and comfort of their cancer patients, it was natural to offer our live concerts free to their patient community.”
During each concert, greetings will go out from the stage to the listeners at MD Anderson and The Hallmark, “so they know they’re being thought of,” Lawyer said. For the musicians, the new audience “makes our performances so much more meaningful.”
The other concerts to be streamed are:
“ROCO Celebrates Sousa” on Nov. 9;
“ROCO Celebrates Austria” on Feb. 22;
“ROCO Celebrates France” on April 5.
The streaming is possible because much of the equipment for it was already in place, said James Rowland, ROCO’s executive director. The Church of St. John the Divine, site of the concert, has six video cameras. The cancer center has its own television network reaching 600 patient rooms. The Hallmark bought reception equipment.
ROCO hopes to expand the streaming program into more such locations if it can find funding, Lawyer and Rowland said.– Steven Brown